We are going to have to put in new doors and windows in the Biertan house because they were all missing when we bought the house, but also because we are creating a few new window and door spaces. We found an excellent skilled wood craftsman in Gura Râului (jud. Sibiu), which is a village just a few kilometres from Sibiu on the way to the Olt valley. However, neither he nor anyone else seemed to be able to supply the old, medieval style locks that used to fit all the doors in this part of Transylvania.

Therefore, we went on a great hunt for second-hand locks that we could restore and fit to the doors. Our search took us far and wide and in the end we found an excellent private little shop in someone’s house in Mediaş. Dl Rusu is a really friendly guy who has been collecting antiques, bric-a-brac and plain old junk for may years and just happened to have a great store of old locks. We managed to buy a dozen old locks from him and Anca’s dad is now helping us to remove rust and have a friend of his restore the locking mechanisms and fit keys. This is much harder than it sounds and most definitely a skills gap in Transylvania itself.

Here you can see one part of Dl Rusu’s house-cum-shop/bazaar and examples of the type of locks we have been looking for: